U.S. Senate panel approves Harriet Tubman national park in Auburn

Stephen D. Cannerelli / The Post-StandardStanding in front of the Harriet Tubman Home for the Aged in Auburn are Harriet Tubman Booster Club members (back L-R) Rosemarie Romano and Jennifer Haines, (middle L-R) Ursula Johnson and her sister Deidre Johnson-Stanford (both Great Great grand nieces of Harriet Tubman) and in the front their mom, Pauline Copes-Johnson, a great grand niece of Harriet Tubman.

Washington -- After almost four years of delays, Congress today took its biggest step yet toward establishing a national park at Harriet Tubman's former home and surrounding property in Auburn.

The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee approved the Harriet Tubman National Historical Parks Act, moving the legislation for the first time to a vote in the full Senate.

The bill would establish parks in New York and Maryland to honor Tubman, a leader of the anti-slavery resistance network known as the Underground Railroad.

The National Park Service had already endorsed the legislation, sponsored by U.S. Sens. Charles Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y. Rep. Richard Hanna, R-Barneveld, is co-sponsoring a companion bill in the House.

The legislation would authorize federal grants to preserve and restore Tubman's former residence and historic properties on 32 acres along Auburn's South Street.

Harriet Tubman

The second park would trace the earlier part of Tubman’s life on the Eastern Shore of Maryland.

The properties in Auburn include the Tubman barn, home for the aged, administrative building, interpretive center and the Thompson Memorial AME Zion Church and parsonage on Parker Street. Tubman died in 1913 and is buried in Auburn's Fort Hill Cemetery.

The National Park Service has estimated the Auburn site would have an annual budget of up to $650,000, which would include $100,000 for maintenance and park service employees.

The legislation was introduced in 2008 by Schumer, former Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., and former Rep. Michael Arcuri, D-Utica.